The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the deferral of so many dreams, and it has hit young businesses particularly hard. Three Sisters Gardens farms is just over 2 years old, and it has added three of its four existing farm sites within the last year. The virus hit just as founder Alfred Melbourne was facing his biggest harvest season ever.

When shelter-in-place orders began in March, he had to send his paid interns and youth volunteers home. His farm’s tomato bushes are groaning with fruit and the eight types of cucumbers he’s planted are ripening on the vine, along with many other vegetables. He has done the vast majority of the strenuous physical work needed to harvest the crops himself, with a small crew including partner Manuela Melbourne.

As Alfred described the plans for a 200-hour educational farming curriculum for youth on hold, and detailed the “complete 180” from 25 volunteers to a handful, he sounded tired yet still buoyant. He called the farms “a blessing”.

He said he is resolute in his mission – which is trifold and vastly bigger than the few acres of land he has tilled and planted. The three “pillars,” as he terms them, are developing urban farm leadership through mentoring – especially of local youth – helping to dismantle mass incarceration, and supporting the unhoused in the community.

These three tenets echo the three symbiotic sisters (corn, beans and squash) of Native American folklore from which the farm derives its name, and Melbourne’s belief that the triumvirate of the youth, adults and elders must come together so that the community can thrive.

The community he referred to is the one he was born into – West Sacramento and Broderick. He spoke fondly of his childhood in Broderick and wryly notes that some refer to Broderick as the grandmother of West Sacramento, and you “don’t turn your back on your grandmother.” His background is Hunkpapa Lakota, and his great-grandmother, Helen Arnell Speakswalking, who was relocated to the area in the 1950s, started the first Native American community center in Sacramento.

Like his great-grandmother, Melbourne’s dreams are ambitious, and he cultivated the stamina to achieve them during his 18 years incarcerated in what he deems the “criminal in-justice system.”

After he was released, a friend offered him a small plot of land, and he turned to gardening as a kind of therapy. He found working the land to be soothing and calming after the traumatic years of incarceration, further exacerbated by time in solitary confinement, which was punishment for his commitment to honor his Native heritage by not cutting his hair.

As he started to heal himself through working the land, he met other local farmers, including Nelson Hawkins, owner of We Grow Urban Farm and Market. Hawkins told him about the West Sacramento Urban Farm Program (WSUFP). Melbourne submitted a business proposal, it was accepted, and he gained his second farm site.

Sara Bernal, program manager of WSUFP, described the impressive amount of infrastructure and philanthropy that has gone into supporting the farming dreams of TSG and other small urban farms. In 2014, Bernal, a farmer herself, partnered with the West Sacramento Chamber of Commerce as well as the Center for Land Based Learning (under the auspices of their existing nonprofit) to apply for a $25,000 grant to launch an urban farm initiative. Wells Fargo not only funded the grant, it doubled the requested amount, allowing Bernal to create the first plot.

This city-owned vacant lot, at 5th and C streets, was formerly a gas station that was cleaned up by the EPA. Bernal purchased $16,000 worth of top soil to cover the parking lot beneath, and also paid for the installation of water connections necessary to irrigate a farm. WSUFP also provides shipping containers for storage and to house a farm tool lending library, refrigerated storage space, as well as tutoring in business skills such as accounting that are necessary to keep a small farm running.

After an initial stint as a U-pick flower farm until that farmer retired, TSG recently took the 5th and C field over. Although it’s primarily planted with vegetables, the lush field is still dotted with zinnias and other colorful volunteer flowers, and is now the current site of the TSG Saturday-only farm-stand and community-supported agriculture pick-up spot.

With aspirations to grow to sell to wholesale restaurant accounts and opportunities for tamale fundraisers (which Three Sisters sweetly called “friend-raisers”) on hold due to COVID-19, these CSA accounts have so far sustained TSG and many other small farms. Well over a thousand households who are newly cooking and eating at home signed up for CSA pickup or delivery in the beginning of this year, leading to a whole new crop of loyal customers.

One such customer and champion is Oscar Villegas, who represents District 1 on the Yolo County Board of Supervisors.

When asked about TSG, Villegas wrote, “What makes his [Melbourne’s] urban garden unique is the context and mission, which is based upon traditional Native American teachings of protecting Mother Earth and respecting all living things. The goal of the garden is to inspire and empower high risk youth through gardening which helps them learn to take care of plants, instill passion and empathy, and to see their investment of time and energy reap the benefits of food. He, along with team, including Manuela Melbourne and other local youth have established this garden as safe and vibrant place for youth to be of service to the community. This is a true example of how community members who want to help change the lives of our youth can make a difference with passion, persistence and dedication.”

Alfred’s vision is to have 50 urban farm spaces at the end of five years, all staffed at a living wage by community members.

“We are growing food right in the neighborhood by these young folks that have already been counted out. … It’s grown right here in the ‘hood by folks who ain’t supposed to be doing nothing. … Good, wholesome nutrient-dense food is undeniable!”

Always voluble, Alfred stands among his tall tomato vines while the conversation flows from police funding, to the school-to-prison pipeline, to watermelons. He has to get back to the harvest, so he concludes:

“As I always say, it’s more than just lettuce!”